Field Day Activities

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year! Just a few short weeks of school remain for many, and having a Field Day is a way to pass the time faster and have the kids burn off some extra energy. By request, we have compiled a list of ideas that come from wonderful readers and contributors. There were numerous contributors to this list, so we thank everyone for sharing their ideas and experiences. Some of the games and ideas here may be similar (note all the sponge ideas) so combine ideas to customize your own Field Day!

* Three legged race
* Sack race
* Have a water slide
* Pie in the face booth
* Softball toss
* Instead of having a dunking booth, have a sponge toss where kids toss water soaked sponges
* Have a basketball or volleyball game where grades play against each other and the winners play against the teachers
* One thing that I have seen done at a school I used to work at was to divide the kids into evenly leveled groups before the day. Set up stations and require that the teams move from station to station in a particular order. If they don’t follow the instructions, they are disqualified. It works.
* Frisbee throw (through hula hoops)
* Standing broad jump
* Obstacle course
* 50 yard dash
* Buddy walk
* Bubble blow: use all sorts of bubble blowing toys
* Water balloon “fights”
* Balloon shaving
* Have 2 teams line up side by side. Hand 1 beanbag (or even an eraser) to the front person of each team and they are to pass it over their head to the person behind them. That person (person 2) takes the beanbag and passes it between their legs to the next person. It continues in this fashion (over/under all the way to the end of the line. When the last person gets the beanbag, they run to the front of the line and continue over/under. Each time the beanbag reaches the last person, the last person runs to the front of the line and starts again. It continues like this until the 1st person that was at the head of the line in the beginning is back up at the head of the line.
* A shoe pile race is a blast–kids take off one shoe and put it in one big pile, then they have a relay race between classes one at a time. (make sure that no one has the same shoe as another student, last year a few students got mixed up!)
* Snow cone relay: take a volleyball and put it on a PE cone up side down. Students run down and around and it looks like a snow cone.
* Shoe Kick: Everyone stands in a line and kicks one shoe for distance
* If it is a hot day this is a very popular race. Each team needs two buckets of water and two large sponges. Each team lines up with a bucket of water at the front of the line The team passes the wet sponges over their heads to the end of the line. At the end of the line the last person squeezes the sponge out into the other bucket–and then runs to the front of the line and starts it again. You can have two sponges going at the same time. Give it a time limit 5 min or so and the team at the end who has the most water is the winner.
* I had 20 kids per station rotations every 15 minutes, 8 cones, and 2 balls. I set up 2 lines of 4 cones and put 5 kids on each side of the cones [a team of 10]. I had them start by putting the ball between their knees and hopping or walking through the cones to the other side, the player there then did the same thing back through the cones until one team won…For the second relay, I had them do it backwards and if there was time for a 3rd race, I had them dribble soccer style. Towards the end one parent helper had teams hop with the ball between their knees to the other side of their team and pass it to the next member using knees only. You could also have them dribble basketball style through the cones.
* Sponge Race: fill up a baby swimming pool, have 4 5-gallon buckets each, you need 4 large car wash type sponges, the object of the game is each relay team must race to the pool, fill the sponge with as much water as possible run back to the buckets and squeeze out the water, then passing to the next teammate….and so forth until all players have gone. The winner is the team with the most water in the bucket..
* Balloon Race: You will need four chairs: Each teammate has a balloon. The first one runs to the chair, sits on the balloon until it pops then runs back for the next teammate to do the same. Play goes on until the team that has popped all the balloons wins.
* Tire Rolling Race: With teams, each teammate rolls a tire to the mark and back to the next teammate who then does the same until the last teammate finishes

Contributions
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I have an outdoor variation for the balloon sitting relay. The game is played exactly the same, except that the balloons are filled with shaving cream. Players should not wear good clothes; bathing suits or bare bottoms is preferable. Get the camera ready for this one; line up the kids in a row to shoot the creamed hinies
Nick, Curry College, MA